60 Minute Song Contest Returns

You may have read last October’s post detailing what happens when you listen to ‘Love Shine a Light’ on loop for an hour. If not, you can have a read here. I took the song that I thought I had unconditional love for and tested that to its very limit. After time I have learned to love the song again, I couldn’t stay mad at Katrina for that long! It got me thinking though, if I was so frustrated after an hour of a song I love, what would happen if I tackled the same challenge from the opposite perspective.

The choice of song for this was always going to be exceedingly tricky. For every entry from the Contest I have fallen in love with there’s at least one other I hold in complete disdain. There are songs I find irritating and performers I find intensely unlikeable but neither on its own is enough to warrant choice on this occasion. For me, the one cardinal sin for a Eurovision entry is to leave me bored, songs that are so criminally dull they shouldn’t even have made it anywhere a national final selection. Let alone perform, win, qualify from it’s semifinal and then finish 20th in 2015. My choice for this second 60 Minute Song Contest is ‘Wars For Nothing’ by Boggie.

It’s no exaggeration to say the last time I heard this song was on the night of the final three years ago. 2015 was overall a fairly stellar year but this three minutes of overly earnest drivel had absolutely no right making it out of it’s semi and I’d be damned if I ever had to listen to it again. Having resolved with myself at the time to avoid at all costs, it seemed the perfect track to compare to Love Shine a Light. As with last time there were to be no distractions like a phone or a laptop. It’s just me and the same studio version of the song 20 times, let the 60 Minute Song Contest begin!

From the moment the soft acoustic guitar kicked in and the first line “Do you know the Earth is a mess” was uttered my scorn for just how painstakingly sincere this song is all came flooding back. I’m not averse to a peace ballad, if that were the case it would be very difficult to be a Eurovision fan in the first place. However genuine and heartfelt Boggie’s sentiment was with Wars For Nothing after only two or three listens it came across as nothing but preachy saccharine whining. The song starts off quietly and slowly but rather than building to anything substantial it simply trundles along. After the first few listens I was seriously starting to regret my decision.

However after about 15 minutes, roughly the same point I started to feel frustrated with ‘Love Shine a Light’, something different happened with this song. As it looped time and again rather than the frustration one felt during the previous experience it was a lot easier to remain calm. The somewhat plodding nature of the song actually made it bearable. If you eat too many sweets, you’re gonna end up feeling sick and crashing hard from a sugar rush. Whereas if you eat too much Ryvita you’re probably just going to end up feeling a little sluggish. Boggie is music’s answer to Ryvita.

By the time the last ten minutes rolled around the lethargy of the previous half hour or so turned to aggravation. The calm, zen like state that I found myself in by that point had dissipated and the familiar irritation returned, the last few plays dragged along like a Lithuanian National Final. I had hoped I may have actually found a new level of appreciation for this song going into the hour but I can safely say this still remains my least favourite Eurovision song of all time.